Written Answers Monday 17 May 2010

Scottish Executive

Epilepsy

Mary Mulligan (Linlithgow) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive which health boards are reducing the hours of work of epilepsy specialist nurses (ESN), and by how much.

Shona Robison: NHS boards have provided the information contained in the following table:

  Is the Board Reducing the Hours of Work of Epilepsy Specialist Nurses (ESNs)?

  

NHS Board
 


Ayrshire and Arran
No


Borders
No: does not have any ESNs but works collaboratively with Lothian. A consultant neurologist holds a weekly clinic for people with complex neurological needs.


Dumfries and Galloway
No: does not have any ESNs.


Fife
No.


Forth Valley
No.


Grampian
No.


Greater Glasgow and Clyde
No: has increased Regional ESN hours in recent years. 


Highland
No: has increased children’s ESN hours (by 0.6 WTE).


Lanarkshire
No.


Lothian
No.


Orkney
No: does not have any ESNs but local general nurses have epilepsy training and link with NHS Grampian ESN to provide support to patients with epilepsy.


Shetland
No: does not have any ESNs, but local stroke and MS specialist nurses and GPs link with NHS Grampian ESN to provide support to patients with epilepsy.


Tayside
No.


Western Isles
No: does not have any ESNs.



  Source: NHS boards.

  At the meeting of the Cross Party Group on Epilepsy on 29 April 2010, I said that I would investigate the position in Scotland in relation to ESN numbers and whether there were any cutbacks either in the actual number, or in the hours they are asked to work in this specialist capacity. All NHS boards have now confirmed that their epilepsy specialist nurses focus solely on supporting people living with epilepsy and are not expected to carry out other duties.

Epilepsy

Mary Mulligan (Linlithgow) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many health boards have still to fill their epilepsy specialist nurses posts.

Shona Robison: There are currently no epilepsy specialist nurse vacancies. As the answer to question S3W-33457 on 17 May 2010 indicates, however, there are no epilepsy specialist nurses in NHS Borders, Dumfries and Galloway or Western Isles. NHS Orkney and Shetland have links to the epilepsy specialist nurse in NHS Grampian.

  We are also aware of the Joint Epilepsy Council target of one epilepsy specialist nurse per 100,000 population.

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Epilepsy

Mary Mulligan (Linlithgow) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive which health boards have removed epilepsy specialist nurses posts from their staff complement.

Shona Robison: The information received from NHS boards, which is tabulated in the answer to question S3W-33457 on 17 May 2010, suggests that no NHS board has removed epilepsy specialist nurse posts from its staff complement.

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Health

Margaret Mitchell (Central Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many diagnoses of tuberculosis have there been in Scotland over the past five years broken down into (a) non-pulmonary, (b) pulmonary and (c) respiratory.

Shona Robison: Table 1 shows the number of pulmonary and non-pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) cases reported to ESMI (enhanced surveillance of mycobacterial infection) from 2004-08.

  Table 1: Number of Pulmonary and Non-Pulmonary Tuberculosis Cases Reported to ESMI, 2004-08

  

Year
Pulmonary TB
Non-Pulmonary TB


2004
277 
115 


2005
230
134 


2006
232
150 


2007
270 
138 


2008
265 
187 



  Figures released on world TB day (24 March) 2010 indicate a provisional total of 275 pulmonary and 193 non-pulmonary tuberculosis cases in 2009.

  Table two shows the number of respiratory and non-respiratory cases of tuberculosis as reported by Health Protection Scotland in the 2009 surveillance report

  Table 2: Notifications of Respiratory and Non-Respiratory Tuberculosis in Scotland as Reported by Health Protection Scotland

  

Year
Respiratory
Non-Respiratory


2004
351
112


2005
244
145


2006
260
154


2007
268
141


2008
302
200

Housing

Iain Smith (North East Fife) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many "Scotland Houses" have been created each year since May 2007

Fiona Hyslop: There have been no publicly funded "Scotland Houses" created since May 2007.

Housing

Iain Smith (North East Fife) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the commitment made in the 2007 SNP election manifesto that it could "get a far better return for public investment with support for Scotland Houses opened by Scottish business people internationally – similar to the one recently opened in Estonia" has been met, given that it proposed to provide "£1 million kick-start funding to develop similar initiatives world-wide."

Fiona Hyslop: This commitment was fully considered through research commissioned by SDI. This evaluated current pilot models and competitor best practice which concluded, based on current options, that there was no immediate added value in generating further overseas presence at the moment.

Housing

Iain Smith (North East Fife) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a detailed breakdown of how the one-off, additional allocation of £1 million in 2008-09 to Scottish Development International for the development of Scotland Houses was spent.

Fiona Hyslop: The additional allocation of £1 million was returned by SDI for use in supporting other Scottish Government priorities.

Housing

Mary Mulligan (Linlithgow) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many houses were bought on an off-the-shelf basis by housing associations and local authorities from private developers in each year since 2000.

Alex Neil: The following table sets out how many houses were bought on an off-the-shelf basis by housing associations from private developers in each year since 2000.

  

AHIP Completions
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009


Off the Shelf
56
63
19
18
15
110
300
749
1,084
1,856



  The equivalent figures for local authorities are not held centrally.

  The increase from 2007 onwards reflects the downturn in the private housing market which meant that more opportunities for "Off the Shelf" purchases at competitive prices were offered to Registered Social Landlords. Due to the £120 million accelerated AHIP programme, as part of the Economic Recovery Plan, these opportunities were able to be maximised.

Housing

Mary Mulligan (Linlithgow) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the houses provided through the Affordable Housing Investment Programme were purchased on an off-the-shelf basis from private developers by housing associations and local authorities in each year since 2000.

Alex Neil: The following table sets out what percentage of the houses provided through the Affordable Housing Investment Programme were purchased on an off-the-shelf basis from private developers by housing associations in each year since 2000.

  

AHIP Completions
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009


Off the Shelf
56
63
19
18
15
110
300
749
1,084
1,856


All Units
5,685
6,438
5,569
4,406
4,067
5,848
5,239
5,451
5,797
7,701


% Off the shelf
1%
1%
0%
0%
0%
2%
6%
14%
19%
24%



  The equivalent figures for local authorities are not held centrally.

  The increase from 2007 onwards reflects the downturn in the private housing market which meant that more opportunities for "Off the Shelf" purchases at competitive prices were offered to Registered Social Landlords. Due to the £120 million accelerated AHIP programme, as part of the Economic Recovery Plan, these opportunities were able to be maximised.

Housing

Mary Mulligan (Linlithgow) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when it last met (a) COSLA, (b) local authorities or (c) registered social landlords to discuss good practice in the development of strategies for older people’s housing in each local authority area.

Alex Neil: The last meeting of the Wider Planning for an Ageing Population working group took place on 16 February 2010, during which the group agreed its final report. The group includes representatives of the Scottish Government, COSLA and ALACHO (on behalf of local authorities) and registered social landlords. The next meeting of the working group is due to take place on 28 June 2010.

  Scottish Government and COSLA officials had a further meeting about the workstream on 12 May 2010.

Maritime Issues

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what the statutory status is of the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Spatial Plan Framework.

Richard Lochhead: The framework sets out a process for developing a plan for Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters in a staged approach. The framework is not a statutory document.

Maritime Issues

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what the statutory status will be of the completed marine spatial plan for the Pentland Firth.

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Spatial Plan will work with regional plans emerging from Scottish marine regions.

Richard Lochhead: The Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters marine spatial plan was started to provide momentum in advance of the implementation of the new statutory marine planning system. The main focus has been assembling information which will be necessary for planning this sensitive area, regardless of the final agreed boundaries for planning. The marine spatial plan may be incorporated into future statutory marine plans but this will depend on decisions in Scottish marine regions and other statutory marine planning processes.

Maritime Issues

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Spatial Plan Framework will guide decision making for development in the Pentland Firth.

Richard Lochhead: The Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Spatial Plan Framework sets out the process by which a non-statutory pilot marine spatial plan will be developed.

Maritime Issues

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what (a) statutory and (b) non-statutory bodies were involved in the formulation of the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Spatial Plan Framework.

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what opportunities there were for stakeholder involvement in the formulation of the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Spatial Plan Framework.

Richard Lochhead: Informal meetings about the proposed approach to developing the Framework were held with Orkney and Highland councils, The Crown Estate and Scottish Natural Heritage. The Scottish Government’s Marine Energy Spatial Planning Group discussed the proposed approach in one of their meetings. There were two open-invitation stakeholder events in Thurso and Kirkwall for other interested parties. Information was also made public on the internet on the process of developing the framework.

Maritime Issues

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what the membership is of the Marine Energy Spatial Planning Group environment research sub-group.

Richard Lochhead: The membership of this group is the same as for Marine Energy Spatial Planning Group.

  I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-32070 on 15 March 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Maritime Issues

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what input the (a) Marine Energy Spatial Planning Group and (b) Marine Strategic Studies Forum provided in the formulation of the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Spatial Plan Framework.

Richard Lochhead: The Marine Energy Spatial Planning Group discussed the proposed approach to developing the framework at its meetings in March and August 2009.

  Members of the Marine Strategic Studies Forum were given the opportunity to comment on the proposed approach to developing the framework via email in August 2009.

Maritime Issues

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-32070 by Richard Lochhead on 15 March 2010, for what reason (a) environmental, (b) fisheries, (c) recreational and (d) shipping interests are not represented on the (i) Marine Energy Group and (ii) Marine Energy Spatial Planning Group.

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the membership of the Marine Energy Spatial Planning Group represents the full range of stakeholder interests.

Richard Lochhead: These groups were primarily focussed on identifying the issues for Government arising from the potential of the marine renewables industry.

Maritime Issues

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-32071 by Richard Lochhead on 15 March 2010 indicating that the Marine Strategic Studies Forum met only once, whether it considers that stakeholders have been sufficiently involved in the creation of the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Spatial Plan Framework.

Richard Lochhead: Yes. Members of the Marine Strategic Studies Forum were given opportunity to advise on the proposed approach to the Framework via email in August 2009. There have been other opportunities for stakeholders to provide input into the proposed approach to the framework, at the two stakeholder events held in Thurso and Orkney, and the current consultation.

Maritime Issues

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to include input from (a) environmental, (b) fisheries, (c) recreational and (d) shipping interests in the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Spatial Plan.

Richard Lochhead: The Scottish Government is currently consulting on the Framework and will be considering how to take forward its recommendations on obtaining more detailed information on various sectors’ use of these waters before developing the draft plan. Input is welcome from all interested sectors.

Maritime Issues

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the same approach to stakeholder engagement undertaken in the development of the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Spatial Plan Framework will be followed in the creation of regional plans under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010.

Richard Lochhead: The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 sets out the procedure that any plan maker must follow to engage stakeholders in the development of plans. We are developing the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters marine spatial plan as a non statutory pilot but intend to engage stakeholders using the procedure set out in the act.

Mental Health

Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to motion S3M-4797.1 as agreed by the Parliament on 9 September 2009, why there has been a delay in the publication of the Scottish Dementia Strategy.

Shona Robison: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-33480 on 13 May 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx .

NHS Hospitals

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive when the evaluation of the injury surveillance pilots underway in accident and emergency departments in (a) Edinburgh, (b) Fife and (c) Lanarkshire will take place.

Nicola Sturgeon: The Violence Reduction Unit led injury surveillance pilot in NHS Lanarkshire will be evaluated once data has been collected for one year in the three hospitals involved. It is estimated that this will be in June 2011.

  The Violence Reduction Unit is also supporting injury surveillance work in Edinburgh and Fife. Best practice for undertaking the work is currently being developed and it will be evaluated in due course, so that successful lessons can be replicated in other parts of Scotland.

Prison Service

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions each prison breached their Assessed Operational Limit in each of the last three years.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Willie Pretswell, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

  The following table gives a breakdown of occasions where an establishment has exceeded their Assessed Operational Limit.

  

 
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11


Aberdeen
27
1
0


Addiewell
0
0
0


Barlinnie
133
2
0


Cornton Vale
7
0
0


Dumfries
37
0
0


Edinburgh
102
0
0


Glenochil
69
0
0


Greenock
68
0
0


Inverness
27
1
0


Kilmarnock
0
0
0


Open Estate
0
0
0


Perth
5
0
0


Peterhead
1
0
0


Polmont
71
119
0


Shotts
158
0
0



  Note: 2010-11 figures as of 6 May 2010.

Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body

Parliamentary Security

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body for what reason the Parliament’s vehicle entrance security gates are not working and when it is expected that they will be.

Alex Johnstone: The vehicle entry system was not operational due to a damaged safety device on the exit blocker. The system was repaired and put back into operation on 7 May. Minor work was also carried out on the 14 May. The system is fully operational.

Parliamentary Security

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the total cost was of the Parliament’s security apparatus and allied works for the vehicle entrance.

Alex Johnstone: The spend to date with the vehicle entry system installation contractor Allen Fencing Ltd is £235,823.71. The design of the system by MFD International Ltd cost £8,157.64.